Lauren Oliver burst onto the scene with her first novel, the New York Times bestseller BEFORE I FALL. This was followed by her stunning DELIRIUM, which ALA Booklist called “another deft blend of realism and fantasy.” A graduate of the University of Chicago and the MFA program at New York University, Lauren lives in Brooklyn, New York. LIESL & PO is her first novel for younger readers.
You can visit her online at www.laurenoliverbooks.com.
Meet Lauren Oliver
Dear Reader,
Liesl & Po is a story about many things: ghosts, magic, mix-ups, and friendship, as well as potatoes, stray kittens, mittens, and thieves. It is also, more than anything else, a story of hope. In it, we discover that from very dark places can come very beautiful things, and that there can be unexpected color at the end of long, gray, dusty roads.
I wrote Liesl & Po when I was in the middle of my own dull and gray place: one of my very best friends had just died, leaving me feeling hollow. In many ways, Liesl’s journey toward acceptance of her father’s death was my journey, too. I wrote myself into her; I followed her footsteps as she made her way home, toward a place where she could reach a place of peace. And in the process, I found my own kind of peace.
So as you track Liesl through the pages of this book, know that every word is a footprint, a mark of the road I have journeyed.
This book is very special to me. I hope it will be special to you too.
Love, Lauren
Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers. All Rights Reserved. Illustrations © 2011 by Kei Acedera